Stain of My Love
by triffickie
Summary: RenoxAeris. The tale of a dirty relationship in a polluted city. (Rating may become R in the future chapters.)
1. formal introduction

**stain of my love, pt I**  
_ffvii, reno/aeris, PG for language, around 800 words._  
for stephie, who challenged me (or rather, plotbunnied me) & i wrote. yes, it will be continued. not sure how many parts, but continued it will be.  
**notes**; I'm not one of those people who pair Reno up with every chick in FFVII, but I like the idea of these two together. Sorry for the silly title, folks. And yes, Reno will be more of a cunt later on.  
**disclaimer**: Characters and such by Square Enix. Story by me. 

Reno had been a Turk for fifteen days and seven hours, when he learned two very important things about his job for the first time. He learned that the slums had the best bars, even while they were filled with the scum of the Planet. The second thing he understood that day (and this was ultimately the more important one) was that a Turk's heart was as solid as his head. It didn't act wild, it didn't fuck up. 

He saw her back, as she was placing some flowers in a basket she carried. He imagined his eyes burning holes onto the back of her dress, like cigarette burns, so she'd turn and face him. He was concentrating so hard he hadn't noticed Rude talking. 

"Sorry, wasn't listening, what did you say again?" Reno asked, shifting his eyes on Rude. 

The fellow Turk was lighting a cigarette and Reno remembers what Rude said, when Reno had asked about his smoking,"This city will kill me before cancer does", and looking at their surroundings, the dirty slums, Reno knows it's true. 

"I said she's that girl," Rude stated, exhaling nothing but thick, white smoke. 

"That girl?" Reno's eyes moved back on the girl, she'd turned around now. 

"She's pretty," he commented, as she looked at their direction for a while. A tiny butterfly flapped its wings inside his stomach on that moment, but he knew he shouldn't care for a thing like that. A Turk now, he told himself. A Turk. 

Rude laughed. "Pretty? Yeah, Midgar's known for its pretty flowers." Blowing out smoke, he added, "And how little they last." 

Ignoring this, Reno asked: 

"So what's her story?" 

"They call her the Cetra, but Tseng called her Aeris. She was suspicious, so Shin-Ra took her in. Tseng looked after her for a while, she was tiny back then. They're looking to capture her soon." 

"If they're on the hunt for her, then shouldn't we--" 

"It's not our job tonight, newbie." 

And that's how it was discussed, that was the end of it. Maybe it was because Rude was too lazy to do extra work. Or maybe he was just too cool for it. Reno hadn't decided, but he was learning. He focused on it so hard. So far he had Rude certain that he was going to turn out alright, that he wasn't going to fail. 

The girl was walking toward them, a small smile on her face. With a kind voice, she, Aeris said: 

"Hello. Would you gentlemen like to buy a flower?" Then, looking from Reno to Rude, the smile disappeared from her face and she took two steps back. With a frightened look in her eyes, she stared at Rude, who looked away, sucking on his cigarette, nonchalant. 

"Well," Aeris said with that panicked expression, "are you not going to get me? Try to capture me? I know you're a ...I know what you are." 

"Go away, darling, leave us to do our job," Rude said. 

Her eyes moved onto Reno and stayed there, studying his features, his short red hair and his over-sized uniform, so loose over his lanky body. Conscious of her staring and his own heart beating faster than it should, he ran his hand through his messy hair and looked away. 

"So, are you one as well? What's your name?" she asked, her voice not frightened anymore, but curious. 

"Back off, girlie, just go the fuck home, will you?" he spitted at her, surprised and strangely proud of his own words, how much they sounded like Rude's. Nervously glancing at Rude, he saw Rude was mildly impressed. The girl, however, looked shocked and sad, the expression on her face making his heart heavy. Words of an apology were almost escaping his lips, but Rude cut in. 

"You heard him. And take your silly weeds with you," he said and stubbed his cigarette onto a dirty concrete wall next to them. 

She turned and walked away, her ponytail swinging from one side to another. Reno's eyes stayed on her, hoping for her to turn back or even just to look back for a small moment. A huge hand on Reno's shoulder squeezed it a little. 

"You liked her, didn't you?" Rude laughed, his chuckle cruel and sympathetic at the same time. "You learn not to like them. You learn not to trust them. With time, you just learn. It's not dancing on roses, this job. But it's all you'll have. All you'll think about. Unless you're drunk, very drunk." 

Reno felt cold night air fill his lungs as he inhaled and he smelt cancer in Rude's breath. The other man's hand left his shoulder, but gently poked him in the ribs. His heart still heavy and exhausted from beating so hard, Reno turned his head slowly to face Rude. 

"Go for a drink, shall we?" Rude said, grinning. "I know that bar looks like a shithole, but the whiskey's good and cheap." 

"Sounds great," Reno said, trying to cast some enthusiasm in his voice, but failing terribly. Rude looked at him with stern eyes. 

"You learn to not like them, newbie," he said quietly. "And most importantly, you learn to forget them."


	2. suffocation control

**stain of my love, pt II**   
_ffvii, reno/aeris, pg-13, many words, written for stephie_   
notes; I know it's taken a forever. But here it is! And more is going to be written in the future. They'll have their tiny sordid affair. This is just as angsty as I think my dear Stephie would like it. :D Looked over by rubykate. PS. I re-wrote bits of part one and edited the entry so check that out, as well.   
disclaimer: blah blah square pwns blah blah don't copy without my permission blah blah. 

Nights off work mean alcohol; mean spending your paycheck on beer and double Scotch, mean getting fucked up just so you can forget all about work - all about life. Reno knows this is all much too stupid but he also considers that most people don't work in a job like his. Most people don't see what he sees daily. It's not pretty, but it's a job and somebody has to do it. He deals with it in his own way. As stupid as it may be. 

His Mako-infused brain too tired to think, Reno heads outside, fresh air, he thinks, fresh air is good. There's not much fresh air, so Reno has to compromise and he breathes in cold air with the scent of dirt and he guesses it's good enough. In all honesty, he's quite used to it. He stays outside for a while, considers smoking a cigarette, a bad habit he picked up from Rude; one of the many bad habits he picked up from Rude. 

He's just about to light up, when he sees the girl. The girl, still dressed in the same light shade of pink, her curly ponytail still swinging from side to side as she walks. It's dark, so she doesn't see him and walks on, probably to the safety of her home, Reno thinks. He smiles a lop-sided smile and forgets about the cigarette. 

Silly girl from the slums, shouldn't be out so late, he thinks and decides to follow her, not to scare her (_well, maybe a little_), not to harm her (_we'll see_), but to observe her. He hasn't forgotten what a pretty little thing she was (still is), so he tells himself he just wants to watch. 

But when she notices him tracing her steps she tries to run and he has to run after her. To his luck, she's not a very fast runner, but after catching her, Reno finds it quite difficult to hold her still. She spits words at him and struggles to free herself, but he doesn't let go of her shoulders, trapping her to face him. 

And she's still so incredibly pretty. So fragile, too. Reno always liked that sort of thing in a girl. Petiteness. But this girl's something extra. She's a good girl. Reno knows this because Reno's a bad guy. The beauty of the whole thing is of course that good girls don't fuck bad guys, good girls don't actually _fuck_ at all, they've got nicer terms for these things. But it doesn't end there. The thing that Reno finds very amusing is that bad guys don't really give a fuck about whether good girls normally fuck bad guys, they do it anyway. 

This is why Reno kisses her. Her mouth doesn't taste like anything, but soon he tastes flowers and it's too typical, so he figures it's a scent rather than a flavour. Aeris responses to his kiss, but only to bite his lower lip a second later. She doesn't bite gently like to say it's her kink, just what she does whenever she kisses someone. No, she bites hard and Reno gulps down a tea spoonful of his own blood before he pushes her away. Then he's spitting and cursing and calling her all things you shouldn't call a lady, especially on a first date. 

She's standing there against an ugly wall (such contrast), her hands behind her back, his blood on her lips and dress and she could run away, here's her chance, but she's too good for that. Or too stupid, or too horny. Reno isn't fit to tell. He never understood women anyway. 

"Bastard," she breathes out. Reno smiles, blood still dripping from his lip and he thinks blood looks sexy on her. 

Reno takes a few staggering steps toward her and attempts to clean the blood from his chin, but failing at this, he walks forward. And then he's against her and she gasps, but doesn't push him away. 

Kissing hurts this time, but Reno muses it's worth it. It's worth anything to know that the charm's still there. The same old story; the good girl hates the bad guy, but wants him and can't really help herself.   
It could go on a forever, but Reno decides it doesn't. He pulls away and maybe he wants to be the good guy tonight, take her home, give her a goodnight kiss and ask her out. Maybe they'll date and end up married eventually, maybe he'll hide her from Shin-Ra, maybe he'll run away with her to somewhere where the company's grasp doesn't reach. 

Reno laughs at this and looking at Aeris, he sees she's got this hesitant look on her face. She just might run away and Reno doesn't really know what to do with her anymore, so he just might let her go. 

Or then not. Why would he make the same mistake twice? 


	3. answers you already know

**stain of my love, pt III  
**To Stephie, once again. This time for Christmas. Disclaimers and such in previous chapters.

--

She traces one scar that travels across his chest with one finger and lying next to her, he sighs. It's morning outside his apartment, in the world. Reno feels relaxed on this blissful moment that's silent and sweet, like it usually is after sex with a person one mildly cares about, but he knows what's coming. He opens his eyes and she's looking at him already, lips slightly open and if he wasn't kind of pissed off at her because of what she's about to ask, he'd kiss her right now.

_Please don't _ , Reno silently begs. _Don't fucking ask it. Just. Please.  
_

But she does. Holding her breathe for a moment, and then. The Question about the mysterious scars. The one they all ask.

"How did you get them?"

He has to admit her tone is different from all the others. This changes his reaction to The Question from being incredibly pissed off to being a little puzzled. She didn't sound curious, the kind of curious most girls are, the kind of curious that means "I want to know, but don't actually want to know the truth".

Equivalent to "Does this dress make me look fat?", the question Reno would have to hear, maybe, if he ever stuck around that long. He's smart enough not to. Ever.

She sounds more interested than curious. In Reno's head the two things are very different.

"Do you really want to know?" he asks slowly, sliding a finger up her bare arm. She's one of those girls he never thought would agree to do this with him. He likes it, the strange affair where they meet up and do it or sometimes don't, sometimes she just makes him laugh and he does the same to her. Reno doesn't want to lose this for now.

They always do it in his apartment. They meet somewhere between Sector 7 and Sector 8 and everyone recognizes him when they travel on one of the trains but no one ever says shit because it'd only mean trouble for that person. He wears sunglasses in case they run into someone from the Big Office, the HQ, but they never do - no other Shinra employees live in the neighbourhood Reno lives in.

His apartment is not huge, but it's big enough. They only use the bedroom for the most part anyway and he wants to tell himself this is just one of those meaningless, dirty affairs he has with random women every now and then. But it has last way too long in order to be meaningless. And Aeris is just much too affectionate in order for the sex to be dirty.

He can't even call it "fucking" anymore. Because it just isn't. Perhaps it never was.

"Do you really want me not to know?" she asks innocently.

He smirks, she's far too clever for him and he doesn't necessarily want to admit that yet, but he'll admit she was clever with that question. So he decides to tell her a story. It's a brutal one, but he leaves out the parts that'd shock her too much. He starts calling it the Aeris-version of the story. Perhaps one day he'll re-edit it so he can tell it to his kids.

Or not.

"Oh," she says after he has finished and her hand moves lower on his chest, teasing instead of gentle now and he smiles at her and she smiles back.

Kind of like the always do.

He smiles at her and doesn't realize what is happening until it's too late. She's placed her arms around him and she presses her body close against him. So close. So soft.

She doesn't want sex anymore, she wants to cuddle now. That's right. Just cuddle.

Reno doesn't do that. Reno won't do that. It speaks about emotions he doesn't want to have, feelings he doesn't need right now. He knows she'd like to. She may not be all sugar like he thought but she's still a girl. A good girl.

He doesn't need to be tied to her right now, or ever. This stupid girl with her silly flowers. She's got her eyes closed, this blissful look all over her face he doesn't_ want to _destroy, but has to.

"With her stupid flowers," he mumbles as he gets up. She looks up at him, big eyes wide with confusion and something inside him argues to just stay and put it with all the cuddling she wants to do but he refuses to listen.

"Where are you off to now?" she asks, disappointed and slightly annoyed and Reno can't look at her.

"Work," he says while getting dressed.

At the door he stops, thinks.

"You can have some breakfast, but leave before noon, okay?" he tells her, still facing the door. He hears rustle of sheets and then her voice, tinier than before.

"Okay."

He doesn't want to think about that tiny voice but it stays with him the entire day.


End file.
